LogFAQs > #968530949

Ryuko_Chan posted...

digitigrade? i was thinking of playing an orc

"Stands on digits." As opposed to plantigrade: "foot planted down." Orcs are plantigrade.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/9/AAEv3mAADwE1.jpg

As you can see the argonian is standing almost entirely from the base of their feet, right next to the toes. That is the same with the Khajit, just with slightly different visuals.

In-game this mostly doesn't matter except for two important ways: both beast races cannot wear helmets (due to their "abnormal" head shape), and both beast races cannot wear boots/shoes/etc. (same as before but feet). For obvious reasons this absolutely shatters the balance in the game as you are missing two entire gear slots meaning that your effective armor is pathetic compared to the other options. Not just that but one of the "most required" items in the game are the Boots of Blinding Speed as they make walking around not miserable, yet neither race can wear them. You can somewhat rectify this through mods, but from the base game you legitimately are just gimping yourself hard to roleplay as a lizard/cat, something that doesn't exist in any of the rest of the series. Yeah water breathing in Skyrim was kind of trash versus something like Orsimer's "do all the damage and take none of the damage for 60 seconds", but the difference overall wasn't that extreme. Morrowind's "you have a real chance of your opponent acting like you are 100% unarmored" is a bloody massive downside. The fact that, say, the Argonian's water breathing is tied to a spell with basically no duration is just gravy over the whole affair.